Reply #13: The Barnes and Noble in our town gave out numbered, color-coded tickets for [View All]

[1monster]

the Harry Potter book parties.

Those who preordered got one color of ticket and those were numbered by the order in which the people arrived in the store.

Those who didn't preorder got a different color ticket and were numbered by the order in which they came into the store.

Preorders went first, ticket numbers 1-25, then 26-50, etc. until all preorders ticket holders had been served.

Then, those who didn't preorder were served in the same numerical order. Everything when very smoothly with people waiting their turn.

There must have been more than 500 people in the store on the night the last book came out; sardines in a can had nothing on how packed that B&N was. But we were out of there within a half hour of midnight minutes and it looked as though everyone would be served and out of there within two to three hours.

The "Take a number and wait your turn method" works well.